The Burrow
May 8, 2026
Remote working has become increasingly popular in recent years, giving employees a better chance to balance their everyday responsibilities with their work life. One of the main benefits of working from home is the lack of commuting costs, as workers don’t have to pay for fuel or transport tickets. However, remote working can increase your energy consumption, as you’ll have to cover your own costs rather than your office or workplace paying the bill.
As energy plan comparison experts, we’ve crunched the data and ranked some of the biggest cities across Australia and the US to see how much working from home costs, so you can see how you could reduce your energy bills and keep your spending under control. Read on to see our full findings.
To create our rankings, we analysed how much energy a day of working from home costs in each city in our data. We then compared these costs with public transport and driving to show how much you could save on a daily and monthly basis. Here are the cities with the biggest gap in working from home (WFH) and commuting costs:
Workers in Sydney enjoy the biggest WFH savings in Australia, with a large gap in spending between remote working and commuting. The city has the fourth-highest daily driving costs in Australia ($4.47 AUD) and the highest daily public transport cost ($11.20 AUD), but working from home costs just $0.46 AUD. That means workers could save $147.67 AUD per month by switching to remote work, amounting to a potential saving of 93.5%!
Melbourne has similarly high driving costs to Sydney, with a day in a car costing around $11.00 AUD. When compared to a day of working from home, which costs just $0.39 AUD on average, it’s not hard to see why so many workers are choosing to switch to remote roles. Over the course of a month, working from home in Melbourne can save you $142.85 AUD, which is 94.3% of a month’s commuting costs.
A day of remote work in Newcastle averages around $0.46 AUD. A day of driving typically costs $5.67 AUD. Still, with remote workers saving 93.2% by swapping a month of commutes for a month of WFH, Newcastle offers significant savings.
Perth had the fourth-biggest monthly savings by WFH. The daily $3.61 AUD cost of driving is much smaller than other cities, but a day of working from home costs just $0.41 AUD on average. That means those from Perth could save $100.65 AUD, or 91.7% of their commuting costs, over a month.
With daily driving costs of $8.32 AUD, a month of car usage in Australia’s capital can set you back as much as $72.38 AUD. Meanwhile, a month of WFH costs just $7.13 AUD to your energy bills on average, meaning you could save 93.1% of your commuting costs by switching to a home setup.
It’s not just Australia that’s experiencing a rise in work from home roles. Read our rankings of the US cities where workers can save the most by cutting commuting costs:
Portland tops our rankings of US cities with the biggest WFH savings, with an average day of remote work costing just $0.20 USD in energy bills. Across a month, that adds up to $4.42 USD, which is considerably less than the city’s monthly commuting costs of $100.00 USD for public transport and $69.08 USD for driving. Workers can save 94.8% of the money spent on driving by working remotely.
A day of energy usage in Dallas costs $0.21 USD on average, while a day of car driving in the city costs $1.84 USD, while public transport costs $6.00 USD. This means that over a month, those WFH could save 78.55 USD, or 94.4%.
The West Coast continues to dominate our top three, as San Jose takes a bronze-medal finish in our rankings. A day of remote work costs just $0.47 USD in energy bills. When compared to the daily driving costs of $3.91 USD and public transport costs $5.00 USD a day, that means workers could save 88.3% on their bills across the course of a month!
Washington places fourth on our rankings, with potential savings of 91.3% for remote workers. While a day of driving in the city typically costs $2.06 USD and public transport costs $5.70 USD, working from home adds just $0.32 USD to your energy bills in the same time span. This means you could save up to $74.35.00 USD in a month.
Finally, Phoenix rounds out our rankings, earning fifth place on our list of US cities with the biggest WFH savings. A month of energy bills from remote working in the city adds up to $4.57 USD, compared to an average of $86.46 USD spent on monthly commuting costs by car and $64.00 USD. Remote workers can save $70.66 USD per month by cutting down on commutes, equalling a 93.9% reduction in costs.
Public transport costs can vary regionally, so while taking a bus or train to work can help to keep costs down in some areas, others may be more expensive.
For example, take the Gold Coast or Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. Public transport in these cities can cost as little as $1 AUD for a commute, adding up to just $22 AUD over a standard working month. That’s significantly cheaper than driving.
Meanwhile, public transport in Sydney can cost as much as $11.20 AUD per day. That adds up to $217.39 AUD per month, compared to just $98.34 AUD per month for drivers.
While some cities benefit from cheap public transport, the low cost of working from home means you can always save by skipping a day at the office and logging in remotely.
Working from home can be a great way to keep your spending down in a world where the cost of living is constantly rising, but it’s still important to save wherever possible. Meredith O’Brien, Head of Energy at Compare the Market, says:
“To keep your energy bills down while working remotely, try using energy-efficient settings on your devices where possible, and switch off your electronics when they’re not in use. You can also compare electricity prices to find a better deal on your plan, potentially saving hundreds of dollars in the process, whether you’re working from home or doing ordinary house chores.”
This dataset ranks US and Australian cities by the monthly cost of working from home relative to the monthly cost of commuting to work by car. Cities were ranked by the monthly savings from working from home, from the highest to the lowest. The monthly commute costs by car and public transport were averaged together to create a work commute figure that was compared to monthly WFH costs to calculate monthly savings.
Daily WFH Energy Cost
The daily WFH energy cost was calculated by adding the electricity consumption of a standard home-office setup over an assumed 8-hour working day, then multiplying by the local household electricity unit rate. Appliances included are: a laptop, a monitor, a Wi-Fi router, LED lighting, and a phone charger (assuming 2 hours of charging per day). A kettle was included for Australian cities and a drip coffee maker for US cities, reflecting typical hot drink habits in each market, with 4 drinks per day assumed.
Daily Commuting Cost
The average commute distance for Australian cities was sourced from the Real Australian Commute Report 2022. For US cities, distance was derived by multiplying the average driving commute time, sourced from the US Census Survey, by the average driving speed from the TomTom Traffic Index 2024. One-way distance was doubled to reflect a return journey. Fuel efficiency was then assigned based on each city’s average driving speed using set buckets, which are as follows: 50+ km/h = 6 L/100km, 30-50 km/h = 7 L/100km, 15-30 km/h = 8.5 L/100km, and under 15 km/h = 10 L/100km. Daily commuting cost was calculated as return distance multiplied by the assigned fuel efficiency and local fuel price per litre, sourced from Numbeo.
Monthly Costs
All costs are also presented as monthly figures by multiplying daily costs by 22 working days. Daily & monthly public transport costs are also presented per city as a contextual data point, using the cheapest available option between a monthly pass and 44 individual one-way fares.
All data is correct as of 29/04/26. The ranking data shown is a compilation of multiple data sources and may not be representative of real life. All data is accurate with regard to the sources provided.